Stories from the trenches, by a fictional hiring partner at a large law firm in a major city.

Monday, May 29, 2006

We sent out a memo on Friday making it clear that while Memorial Day is an official firm holiday, the office will not be locked down, and the wisest thing anyone should be remembering today is how to get themselves to the office. So attendance was pretty solid, except for the summer associates, who we let stay home so they don't get the wrong idea about how demanding we are.

I took advantage of the empty summer associate offices to do a bit of a survey of how they've decorated. Every year there are always some summers who bring things in and try to "make the office their own" for the summer, with pictures of their family, and trinkets from home, and all sorts of other garbage. We don't encourage it. I don't like family pictures in the office. It reminds people to go home. We don't need that. No clocks in the office, no family pictures, and as little natural sunlight as we can get away with while still being able to advertise the window views. It's like casinos. We want people to get lost in here and forget the rest of the world, forget there's life outside of these walls, forget to leave. So family pictures are a no-no. The sparser the decorating the better. It makes it easier to get rid of them at the end of the summer. No messy clean-up.

I received an e-mail from a law student, asking about his hair. He's worried he wears his hair in a style that isn't conservative enough for an old-school law firm. I wrote back and told him he shouldn't worry too much about it, because all the male associates lose their hair after a couple of years anyway. Frankly, I don't pay much attention to an associate's hairstyle, even during the interviews. Comb it, don't comb it, grow it out, I don't care. Associates won't be seeing clients for a decade, so what's the difference. And it's not like they have time to go home and shower between days in the office, so a certain degree of sloppiness is expected. And in fact is a sign of dedication to the job. Of course, facial hair is frowned upon, and we don't like hats. And there are some senior partners with an aversion to sideburns, but we're pretty tolerant of those today.

I went to a wedding yesterday. My BlackBerry wasn't getting good service at the reception so I left early.